The Book Pirate

I came across this post that highlights some of the stranger things that you can stumble across while searching for Waldo in Martin Handford’s Where’s Waldo/Wally? books.

9 Strange Things Found While Searching for Waldo

Speaking of things that are hard to find, Karen over at the blog Munrovian won the Murder By The Book contest. However, she has completely neglected her duties of responding to the e-mail I sent her asking where I can send the present. Shame on you Karen! No, but seriously. E-mail me? :-)

After residing in Portland for close to 4 1/2 years now, you’d think that SOMEBODY would have told me about the cute little bookshop along Hawthorne called Murder By The Book.

It’s a bookshop that is exclusively tailored toward the mystery-lover demographic. When I entered earlier today, while finishing up some last minute Christmas shopping for myself, the kind ladies who worked there immediately offered me cookies and cider. And no, this wasn’t some sample used as a ploy to get me to spend $4 in some attached cafe. This was actual cookies and cider that were free out of the goodness of their murder-loving hearts. This is a pleasant surprise, I said to myself while munching on a star shaped cookie and perusing the noir section. Perhaps it was the cider, perhaps it was that I wasn’t paying attention, but as luck would have it I bumped in to a little table piled with presents. The sign on the table stated that these presents were a collection of books that you could purchase and not know what they were. Because I love presents and a good mystery, I bought two of these bundles. You love a good mystery too, right?

I thought so. I bought two of these. One for me, one for you. You can have it. I practically insist. So I am holding a contest. You can enter in the following ways:

1) You can get one entry by leaving a comment and telling me one of your favorite mystery books
2) You can get another by tweeting about this contest (You can use this link http://tr.im/I85e). Send me an @thebookpirate to let me know.
3) Lastly, you can get another by posting about this on your blog

That’s a possibility of 3 entries. On December 31st I will draw a winner and send you one of the bundles the books (still wrapped). You can even pick out which bundle you would like.

Also, MBTB has a blog which you should totally check out.

Bust out your Crayola 120ct Crayons! It’s time for a coloring contest.

Patrick Wensink, author of Sex Dungeon For Sale!, is hosting a coloring contest where you can win fabulous prizes. And by fabulous prizes I mean a selection of Wensink’s favorite books of 2009. You can win signed copies of 4 books (Help! A Bear is Eating Me! [my review] and Fool are included, autographed BW). Oddly enough, he does not include a copy of his own book, Sex Dungeon For Sale. Perhaps Patrick does not think that highly of himself or maybe he is simply trying to save on postage. Regardless, you should totally enter.

Here’s how it works. Download and print the coloring page that you fancy. Each page is based off of a story from SD4S (My Son Thinks He’s French, Jesus Toast, Chicken Soup for the Kidnapper’s Soul). Color it in either by hand or digitally, then e-mail it to patrickwensink@gmail.com with your name, address and phone number. The deadline is December 14th. You can check out his rather random web site for more details if you still feel ill informed about this contest.